LIVE BLOG: Great South Bay Music Festival Day 1

8:35 PM

That wraps up all of tonight’s action from the Five Towns College Stage. Check back tomorrow for more great music and festival updates from the Great South Bay Music Festival.

8:15 PM

The sun is setting, and festival attendees are pulling up chairs to settle in for the evening acts at the Voodoo Ranger Main Stage.  Right now, MJT wows the crowd at the Five Towns College Stage.

6:30 PM

Food Break! One of the tasty food stands here at the Great South Bay Music Festival is the shish kebab stand, “GNL Gyro.”  Vendor Emily Farrington talked about what makes their food so delicious, saying, “We have a lot of fun making it. I make it right in front of you and add a lot of spice.” With the kebabs costing only nine dollars, it is one of the better deals in the food court.

6:00 PM

FTC Sound Stream Hosts Fernando Gomez and Tyler McCready interview Chloe Halpin after her set.

FTC Audio students set up for the next act, Lex Grey & The Urban Pioneers, to take the Five Tows College Stage.

Over on the Voodoo Ranger Main Stage, Brandon TAZ Niederauer, a Dix Hills native, takes the stage with his contemporary rock act. Niederauer has an extensive portfolio of on-stage experience, having played with Stevie Nicks, Slash, Scorpion, as well as performed with the Broadway musical, School of Rock.

5:15 PM

The Main Stage has started to die down as Kerry Kearney finishes their set.  The next act, Brandon TAZ Niederauer is prepping to take the stage.  In the meantime, attendees are heading over to the Five Towns College Stage to see Long Island native, Chloe Halpin, perform her set consisting of country ballads as well as a cover of “Zombie” by the Cranberries.

4:30 PM

Time has been moving quickly behind the scenes with some technical problems with the signal popping up for the Five Towns crew.  Fortunately, these problems were quickly solved by crew member James Miller, who recommended the signal be moved to a different area to make it stronger.

Festival attendees are starting to enter the festival as the bands and soundstages are getting prepped. Thomas Falcon, an Audio Engineer said, “troubleshooting is a major part of setting up the stage…finding out what exactly we need to fix, but everything’s running nice and smoothly right now.”  Excitement is rising at the Great South Bay Music Festival as the bands are about to play.

4:15 PM

Festival attendees were lined up outside the venue, waiting for doors to open at 4:00pm. The line spanned several blocks. 

With doors opening, vendors are hurrying to finish setting up so they can be ready to serve the oncoming crowd.

On the music side, the pre-show sound checks are just now finishing up, and the first act, Chloe Halpin, is preparing to begin their set.

4:00 PM

As the bands get ready to perform and vendors get ready to serve, Five Towns College Mass Comm gets ready to cover the festival. Radio Hosts Grace Bonamico and Daniel Garcia report for the FTC Sound Stream on festival news for the first half of the day.  “I am just excited to be here.  It is my first musical festival and being able to kick it off is really special,” said Co-host Grace Bonamico.

Also, this year is the first time Five Towns College is streaming performances from the Five Towns College stage live on video.

3:30 PM

Vendors have arrived on site and have begun setting up their stands. There are various vendors selling and promoting a variety of goods and services, from food and drink to festival merch, and even window replacement.

Kyle Chandler, owner of Subtle Tea, a local iced tea company based in Ronkonkoma, thinks the festival is a great way to spread brand awareness.

“This is our ninth year at the Great South Bay Music Festival and we’re just trying to keep people hydrated with quality iced tea and lemonades. Being here is a great way for us to spread the word about our product while being a part of the music scene.”

3:00 PM

FTC Reporter Daniel Garcia runs through the Five Towns College stage setup at the Great South Bay Music Festival.